3 Cycling Tips, How to Cycling?

In light of this upcoming long-weekend ride, I present my top 11 tips for improving your cycling technique:

1. Pedal with flat feet: Some people think of keeping their heels down, and some point their toes towards the sky. A couple of analogies we use are to picture the linkage on an old steam engine and visualize your foot as the linkage come up and staying flat throughout the revolution of the wheels. The other is to picture an equestrian rider, riding a horse with heels down, while toes are in the stirrups. Toes down is a no, no in my book, and you'll see why in the next two tips, as they all go together.

2. Get on the pedals early: This means you start pushing forward on the pedals before they reach the top of the arc or 12 o'clock. With your feet flat to slightly toed up/heeled down you'll be able to increase your power band from two to three hours if you look at the face of a clock. With left foot, start pushing at 10 o'clock instead of one o'clock. With toes down it is very difficult to start pushing before the pedals reach 12 o'clock.

3. Focus on the push phase of the pedal revolution as it is where you produce the most power: I read articles all the time and hear from people that they focus on getting through the dead spot, as if scraping mud off the bottom of their shoes. They spend so much time pulling up and focusing on the weak part of the stroke they forget to push on the pedals.

I owe Joe Saling, multi-time national champion and one-time heart attack survivor, for the saying "push hard and pedal fast" as he sent me off to win the Pan Am Masters Time Trial Championship in Mar del Plata, Argentina, in 2006.

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